What an odd article. It spends several paragraphs describing nightmarish compatibility issues and lack of support or capability for various mainstream tools, but seems to have a completely unjustified and wildly optimistic point of view that all the problems are just short term transitional annoyances that will be fixed in Q1 2021 or shortly thereafter. It concludes M1 is worth the hype.
What a bizarre perspective with nothing to support it except apparently blind optimism.
Well, there’s also Apple’s success rate at pulling off transitions like this, and the fact that their developer partners know they have to either make the transition or abandon the platform.
Unlike Microsoft dipping its toes into the ARM waters, everyone knows Apple is committed to this.
Apple pulled off a similar transition once in recent history (the other examples are so antiquated that they teach us little about the present hardware industry), and that was a move toward the rest of the personal computing market --- not away.
This is a step toward mobile/iOS. Apple isn't the same underdog that it was when PowerPC was put to bed, and the transition is challenging because the Mac platform is bifurcated in the interim.
PowerPC to Intel isn't a good proxy for this because the technology is different, the transition strategy is different, and the company itself is different.
If the M1 transition is to be smooth, it has to achieve that on its own merits, without looking back in search of comparable transitions past.
The complaints raised in this article are mostly irrelevant to the typical consumer.
Rosetta 2, from all reports, works well enough that I’d argue they’ve already succeeded in making the transition smooth enough to call it a success.
The main non-developer concern raised in this piece is extraneous dialog messages, which sadly we’ve pretty well all been trained to ignore. I agree they’re unfortunate, but they’re hardly a show-stopper.
The real risks Apple faces, as far as I can see:
* Will developers do the needful for universal apps? That seems to be well underway, even among the giants.
* Will a lack of x86-64 Windows emulation prove to be a deal-breaker for too many users? I’d say that’s impossible to know, but I’m optimistic. (And if Apple once again is setting a trend for the industry, Windows itself may fully make this transition someday.)
* Will Apple be able to keep up with AMD and Intel in the chip race? Obviously early signs are promising.
Big risks, but mostly ones Apple can control, or at least influence. What other dangers am I missing?
Adding: the dependence on TSMC is obviously a risk, but I imagine Apple has some notion of what they can do if they lose that option.
What a bizarre perspective with nothing to support it except apparently blind optimism.